Rotationally operating boring machines



April 29, 1969 H. LAUTSCH ROTATIONALLY OPERATING BORING MACHINES FiledJan. 9, 1967 lient-I' grr.-

INVENTOR f ummm. u-rscn ATTORNEY UnitedStates Patent O 9 Int. Cl. EZlb3/I01/06; EZlc 23/00 2 U.S. Cl. 175-104 Claims ABSTRACT OF THEDISCLOSURE A rotationally operating boring machine comprising an annularrotor body, an inner carrier body outside of said rotor body andconcentric therewith, an electric motor having a rotor incorporated withsaid rotor body and a stator incorporated with said inner carrier body,an

outer carrier body outside of and concentric with said y inner carrierbody, said inner and outer carrier bodies being adapted to carry cuttingtools, a circular row of external gear teeth on said inner carrier body,a circular row of internal gear teeth on said outer carrier bodyadjacent to and spaced from said external teeth, pinions meshing withsaid rows of internal and external teeth, 4a planetary drive comprisinga sun wheel rigid with said rotor body and planet gears meshingrespectively with said sun wheel and said pinions, a mounting plate forsaid planet gears and pinions, connecting means secured at one end tosaid mounting plate and extending freely through said rotor body, landguide means connected to the other end of said connecting means forengaging in a preliminary bore hole.

This invention relates to rotationally operating boring machines.

In my co-pending patent application (Ser. No. 562,331 led July l, 1966)there are described firstly a method land secondly a rotationallyoperating boring machine for the advancement of horizontal to Verticalunderground ltunnels, using two concentric carrier bodies for severalcutting tools, which carrier bodies are driven in opposite directions ofrotation by at least one motor with a stator and a rotor, in whichboring machine is provided a rigid connection of the rotor with one ofthe carrier bodies, more particularly the concentric inner carrier body,and a planetary gearing the sun wheel of which is rigidly connected withthe stator and the planet wheels of which mesh with one or more pinionswhich mesh with external and internal teeth provided on the respectivecarrier bodies.

Not only is such a machine constructively more simple than prior knownmobile boring machines, but it also requires no special means in orderto support heavy reaction torques of its drive; rather, it is suficentto provide means for transmitting to the walls of the underground tunnela difference torque which is much smaller and only occurs when, or if,the opposite torques applied to the two carrier bodies do not completelycompensate one another.

This type of mobile boring machine, in accordance with my saidco-pending application, can, in principle, also be used for theadvancement of vertical to horizontal underground tunnels, in particularof shafts. This machine then differs from the machines heretofore knownfor this purpose in that it has no stationary parts which, for example,have a drive for boring 'rods or winding apparatus for pulling meanswhich create the bearing pressure of the machine. This machine is thusconsiderably more simple.

On the other hand, it is ldiilcult to guide such a machine because thetravelling carriage provided, for this purpose, for advancement ofhorizontal or approximately horizon- "ice tal underground tunnels, isnot suitable. It is an object of the present invention to relieve thetravelling carriage of its guiding task and to provide, instead, guidemeans of a different kind so that the travelling carriage can becompletely omitted or at least markedly simplified in its construction.

With this object in view, the first and second carrier bodies and thedrive rotor and `stator are all made annular, and there is provided,extending axially therethrough, connection means to which is securedguide means for engagement in a preliminary bore hole provided, in knownmanner, to determine the course of the boring machine.

As such, the guide means is mobile because it is rigidly connected withthe machine; on the other hand it still only acts on to a relativelyshort part of the preliminary bore hole immediately adjacent the machineitself, in order to translate the respective location of the faces ofthe preliminary bore hole into correction torques which as a result,cause the boring machine to advance the underground tunnel with its axiscoincident with the axis of the preliminary bore hole. The requiredbearing pressure of the machine is created by its Weight or byadditional weights which can be suspended from or placed on the boringmachine.

According to the present invention, therefore there is provided arotationally operating boring machine comprising rst and second carrierbodies, each adapted to carry a plurality of cutting tools,concentrically mounted for rotation about a common axis of rotation, adrive motor comprising a rotor and a lstator, the rotor being rigidlyconnected to the lirst carrier body for rotation therewith and thestator being mounted for rotation about the said common axis, at leastone rotatably mounted pinion, external and internal gear teeth on therespective carrier bodies and in mesh with said pinion, a planetarydrive comprising `a sun wheel rigidly connected with the stator forrotation therewith and at` least one planet wheel in mesh with the sunwheel and the said pinion, and mounting means having the said pinion andsaid planet Wheel rotatably mounted thereon for rotation aboutrespective first and second axes fixed relative thereto, wherein thecarrier bodies and the stator and rotor are all annular and there isprovided, extending axially therethrough, connecting means rigidlyconnected at one of its ends with the said mounting means, there beingalso provided, connected rigidly to the connecting means at the otherend thereof, guide means adapted to engage in a preliminary bore hole tobe followed by said boring machine.

It is known to use preliminary bore holes in advancing horizontal `tovertical or inclined underground tunnels. However these preliminary boreholes are generally not used to guide a mobile boring machine but merelyto guide a mobile part of an otherwise stationary machine either viarigid boring rods, the mobile part of the machine then being the boringtools, or via pulling means coming from a reel, the mobile part alsoincluding the drive of the boring tools.

The connecting means for the guide means, and the guide means itself,may basically take any desired form. In the most simple case, with theguide means running in the preliminary bore, the guide means is merely asensor, of any desired design which transmits signals corresponding todeviations from the desired course, which signals are, in turn,transformed into control signals and control torques. However, theinventive idea can be realised in a particularly simple form if theguide means is also designed to transmit to the Walls of the preliminarybore hole, and thus to resist, any unbalanced rotary torque generated bythe boring machine.

In the case of boring machines for travelling along vertical to inclinedunderground tunnels, that is in particular for shafts and closed shafts,it is then possible to completely omit any travelling carriage fortransmitting such unbalanced torque, or, in mobile boring machines whichare designed in accordance with the invention in my said co-pendingapplication for advancing horizontal or substantially horizontalunderground tunnels, the travelling carriage itself can be designed in amore simple manner. This makes possible a further embodiment of theinvention, in accordance with the travelling carriage is supported onthe faces of the preliminary bore hole and in which the said connectingmeans transmits unbalanced reaction torques to such travelling carriage.

Deviations of the machine from the general direction given by thepreliminary bore hole make themselves evident as bending torques whichact to correct the alignment of the machine in its pre-determinedtravelling direction.

One preferred embodiment of the present invention is described belowwith reference to the accompanying drawings, which are schematicinasmuch as all details not required in order to understand theinvention have been left out, and in which:

FIGURE l is a general sketch in order to show an exemplary use of saidpreferred embodiment of a boring machine in accordance with theinvention,

FIGURE 2 is an enlarged sectional view, corresponding to that shown inFIGURE 1, of the boring machine itself,

FIGURE 3 is a plan view of the boring machine as shown in FIGURE 2, and

FIGURE 4 is a sectional view of a preliminary bore hole, taken on theline A-B in FIGURE 2, showing guide and connecting means of the machine.

As shown in FIGURE l, a vertical closed shaft 1 which extends from anupper level 2 is -being advanced towards a lower level 3 along a coursedefined by preliminary bore hole 4, in such manner that the rubble whichis released by a mobile boring machine, generally indicated at 5, fallsthrough the preliminary bore hole 4 into the lower level 3 and intomeans 6 for transporting it away.

The boring machine itself is a mobile machine. As shown in FIGURES 2, 3and 4, it has two concentric annular carrier bodies, namely an outercarrier body 7 and an inner carrier body 8. These carrier bodies areused for mounting the actual boring tools which can be designed in theknown manner and are therefore not illustrated. For example, the usualroller boring tools may be used. The carrier bodies are driven by meansof a drive motor which basically comprises a rotor 21 and a stator 20,to which electrical current is supplied in any suitable manner. Thestator 20, is carried by a body stator 9 and rotates in the oppositedirection of rotation to the rotor 21, and is rigidly connected to theconcentric inner carrier body 8 and is not separately illustrated sincein effect it consti-tutes a part thereof. The rotor shaft, which isannular accommodates the stator `body 9 to which is rigidly connected asun wheel 9a which acts upon four pinions 11 via planet gears 10. Thepinions 11 mesh with an internal gear 11a forming a part of theconcentric outer carrier body 7 and also an external gear 11b formingpart of the inner carrier body 8. When the pinions 11 are rotated viathe planet gears then the concentric outer carrier body 7 also rotates.A theoretically prefect, and in practice almost complete, compensationof action and reaction torque of the rotor and the stator is produced.

The body stator 9 is also annular, which enables guide means 12, runningin the preliminary bore hole 4, to be connected, by connecting means 13extending axially through the body stator 9, to mounting means or disc14 on which the pinions 11 and planet gears 10 are rotatably mounted.Thus any unbalanced torque applied to the disc or mounting means 14 istransmitted by the connecting means 13 to the guide means 12.

In the illustarted embodiment, the connecting means-13 is in the form ofa rigid shaft or axis secured at its lower end to the guide means 12 andat its upper end to the centre of a disc which constitutes the mountingmeans 14 and which carries the pinions 11 at its periphery.

Preferably the guide means 12 has suiiicient friction on the faces ofthe preliminary bore hole to resist a dierence torque which mightpossibly occur and endeavour to rotate the boring machine. In thisconnection it is, however, allowable for the boring machine as a wholeto undergo a slow rotation.

In any case, the friction of the guide means 12 on the faces of thepreliminary bore hole 4 is not so great that it prevents the guide meansfrom travelling axially down the preliminary bore hole 4, as the shaft 1is advanced. Thus the boring machine descends under its own weight, onthe course defined by the preliminary bore hole 4, as the boring of theshaft 1 proceeds.

If it should prove that the weight of the boring machine is not ofitself suliicient for this, then additional weights can be either placedon top of or suspended from the boring machine.

If the machine endeavours to deviate from its predetermined directioncorresponding to the axis of the preliminary bore hole, torques areproduced in the axis 13 which return the machine to its pre-determineddirection. Thus the machine follows the course defined by thepreliminary bore hole without the need for rods or pulling means.

As can be seen, the machine is inordinately simple in construction andcan thus attain relatively great driving performances at slightmechanical cost.

On the first approach, the surface which is to be machined by the toolsseated on the concentric inner carrier will be at the same level as thesurface which is machined by the boring tools on the concentric outercarrier body. The individual boring tools can be provided with driveswhich are mounted on the carriers.

What I claim is:

1. A rotationally operating boring machine comprising an annular rotorbody, an inner carrier body outside of said rotor body and concentrictherewith, an electric motor having a rotor incorporated with said rotorbody and a stator incorporated with said inner carrier body, an outercarrier body outside of and concentric with said inner carrier body,said inner and outer carrier bodies being adapted to carry cuttingtools, a circular row of external gear teeth on said inner carrier body,a circular row of internal gear teeth on said outer carrier bodyadjacent to and spaced from said external teeth, pinions meshing withsaid rows of internal and external teeth, a planetary drive comprising asun wheel rigid with said rotor body and planet gears meshingrespectively with said sun wheel and said pinions, a mounting plate forsaid planet gears and pinions, connecting means secured at one end tosaid mounting plate and extending freely through said rotor body, andguide means connected to the other end of said connecting means forengaging in a preliminary bore hole.

2. A boring machine as claimed in claim 1 in which said mounting platecomprises a disc to which said connecting means is centrally secured,said pinions Ibeing mounted on said disc adjacent the periphery thereof.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,511,957 10/1924 Freda 299-60 X2,384,397 9/1945 Ramsey 175-319 X 2,766,978 10/1956 Robbins 299 602,823,900 2/1958 Kanole 175-58 X 2,937,008 5/1960 Whittle 175-106 XERNEST R. PURSER, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. l-53, 106; 299-60

